What did Judge Susan Bolton of Federal District Court rule on Arizona’s immigration enforcement law?”
A federal judge on Wednesday, weighing in on a clash between the federal government and a state over immigration policy, blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law from going into effect. In a ruling on a law that has rocked politics coast to coast and thrown a spotlight on a border state’s fierce debate over immigration, Judge Susan Bolton of Federal District Court here said that some aspects of the law can go into effect as scheduled on Thursday. But Judge Bolton took aim at the parts of the law that have generated the most controversy, issuing a preliminary injunction against sections that called for police officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times.
A federal judge stepped into the fight over Arizona’s immigration law at the last minute Wednesday, blocking the heart of the measure and defusing a confrontation between police and thousands of activists that had been building for months. Coming just hours before the law was to take effect, the ruling isn’t the end. It sets up a lengthy legal battle that could end up before the Supreme Court — ensuring that a law that reignited the immigration debate, inspired similar measures nationwide, created fodder for political campaigns and raised tensions with Mexico will stay in the spotlight. Protesters who gathered at the state Capitol and outside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City cheered when they heard the news. The governor, the law’s authors and anti-illegal immigration groups vowed to fight on. “It’s a temporary bump in the road,” Gov. Jan Brewer said. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton will now have to decide a question as old as the nation itself: Does federal law trump state law? She in
Arizona’s tough new immigration law was just hours away from taking effect when a federal judge issued an injunction today blocking key portions of the law from being enforced. Among the provisions U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton put on hold are the “reasonable suspicion” section that would allow police to arrest and detain suspected illegal immigrants without a warrant and a provision making it illegal for undocumented day laborers to solicit or perform work. Bolton also stayed part of the Arizona law requiring immigrants to carry federal immigration documents. “There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens under the new [law],” Bolton ruled.
